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Former South Korean President Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Accepting $5.4 Million In Bribes From Samsung (npr.org)
South Korea's former president, Lee Myung-bak, was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for bribery and embezzlement. He will also have to pay $11.5 million in fines. NPR reports: Lee is the second South Korean leader convicted this year of charges of corruption and the fourth former president to be arrested for corruption since the 1990s. Prior to entering politics, Lee had been an executive at Hyundai and campaigned on a promise to help South Korea's economy grow. Lee served as president of South Korea from 2008 until 2013. A court ruled Friday that before and during his presidency Lee accepted $5.4 million in bribes from Samsung, South Korea's largest conglomerate.
In exchange, Lee had granted a presidential pardon to Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's chairman, who had been convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion. The conviction had forced Lee Kun-hee to resign from Samsung in 2008; he returned to work at the company shortly after receiving the presidential pardon. The court also found that former president Lee disguised his ownership of a lucrative auto-parts maker under the names of his relatives and embezzled 24 billion Korean won from the company, according to The New York Times. Samsung later offered to pay legal fees for a court case involving the auto-parts company. Lee, who did not appear in court on Friday, denied the charges. "During the hearings, he shifted the blame to his aides, accusing them of committing the crimes for their own profit and conspiring against him," Judge Chung Kae-seon said on Friday, according to The Times.
In exchange, Lee had granted a presidential pardon to Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's chairman, who had been convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion. The conviction had forced Lee Kun-hee to resign from Samsung in 2008; he returned to work at the company shortly after receiving the presidential pardon. The court also found that former president Lee disguised his ownership of a lucrative auto-parts maker under the names of his relatives and embezzled 24 billion Korean won from the company, according to The New York Times. Samsung later offered to pay legal fees for a court case involving the auto-parts company. Lee, who did not appear in court on Friday, denied the charges. "During the hearings, he shifted the blame to his aides, accusing them of committing the crimes for their own profit and conspiring against him," Judge Chung Kae-seon said on Friday, according to The Times.
This guy was clearly an amateur. He should have looked to western politicians if he wants to see how to legally receive large bribes from corporations. All he need do is call them campaign donations and everything becomes perfectly acceptable and aboveboard.
It is good to see corruption in politics being punished for once. In the US you can hold a Senate hearing for Facebook where 46 of the 55 committee members have been paid off by Facebook in advance and nobody even bats an eyelid.
I can certainly understand that our political leaders shouldn't take bribes. Obviously that's bad.
But even more obviously, I can understand a human being having a great deal of trouble turning down millions of bribery dollars for favours that don't kill anybody.
You'll never get, even honest people to stop taking casual bribes. it's millions of dollars vs a rubber stamp. Everyone has their price.
I'm happy with a small jail term (I think 15 years is 14 years too many) and forfeiting the money with interest.
But what of Samsung? Shouldn't we be making it detrimental to offer bribes in the first place? I'd be happy with samsung being straight-up denied for any government application/request of any kind for one year per million dollars of bribery, plus a payment of double the bribe amount to local taxes.
In this case, with 5 million dollars in bribery, that would mean taxing samsung 10 million dollars and denying every government request (building application, tax exemption, valuation assessment) for the next 5 years.
I call it my sit-down-and-shut-up-for-a-while punishment.
There is no doubt in my mind that Trump's rapist judge is an angry drunk.
Yeah well that happens when you think that hearsay is proof. Want to "listen and believe" by all means, to anyone who believes in the rule of law, standards of evidence, and so on? You just look unhinged and reminds everyone the dangers of the witch hunts of yore.
That simply makes you far more dangerous, because you don't care about evidence. Only what someone dangles in front of you for proof. Bet you would have loved the witch trials too, if she floats she's a witch. If she sinks, god's with her and will forgive us. Maybe next, you'll engage in the recitation of orthodoxy to prove that they're a pure soul.
Om, nomnomnom...
So you entire opinion is based on things that nobody can prove. Can provide no evidence for, can show no dates of, not a single police report of. A fine upstanding example of a person who's part of a mob and let's their emotions rule instead of their intelligence and reason.
And I suspect that you are an incel. You are certainly an apologist for an angry drunk who lacks the temperament to sit on the bench, supreme court of any other.
And there's the progressive/democrat garbage right on queueueueuueeue. When losing, engage in personal attacks, attacks against reputation, slander and with a hope and prayer it will stick. Hate to tell you this, but this stuff is burned out. I sure hope you enjoy the future you're now creating though.
Om, nomnomnom...
You're full of crap. Major parts of it are a matter of public record. The rest requires connecting some big fat dots
Funny how those "major parts of it are public record" don't show any sign of actual wrong doing isn't it.
Now you need your daily boof. Just go ahead, I won't think badly of you. Oh sorry, that time I lied.
Proving again that the left can't meme. Christ, why is all the crap you try so pathetic.
Om, nomnomnom...
If it's so easy to find evidence why don't you list some?
It's a witch hunters wet dream. Lots of "they're a witch, can we burn her?" "What for?" "they turned me into a newt." "A newt?" "I got better..." line of reasoning.
They have no evidence, not even circumstantial evidence of guilt. They have hearsay, uncorroborated statements, witnesses who have a history of actions that devalue any statements they make. There's not even basic general knowledge statements that they can give which can be corroborated by people. Nothing has been to court, nothing has been tried on fact or law. There's been no verdicts rendered. The fact that there are so many jackasses out there who are "listening and believing" is downright bad.
When Trump said a few days ago that "This is a terrible time for young men" he was right, the mentality of that other poster proves that. They don't need proof to go after you, just the accusation that you're not following orthodoxy, saying the wrong thing, holding the wrong opinions. Add in the smears of "they're a misogynist, sexist, rapist, incel" or whatever else? They're in full-on mob mode, and the only way it's going to stop is by either having enough people to say "e-fucking-nough" or continuing the path that has gone on for the last decade until someone snaps so hard that people start dying from it.
Om, nomnomnom...